Patton, Montgomery, Rommel: Masters of War

429 Pages·2009·6.29 MB·English

by  Terry Brighton

B S A
Y THE AME UTHOR
Hell Riders:
The Truth About
the Charge of the Light Brigade

To Linda, with all of my love
In any specific action we always have the choice between the most audacious and the most
careful solution. Some people think that the theory of war always advises the latter. That
assumption is false. If the theory does advise anything, it is the nature of war to advise the most
decisive, that is, the most audacious. Theory leaves it to the military leader, however, to act
according to his own courage, according to the spirit of the enterprise and his self-confidence.
Make your choice, therefore, according to this inner force; but never forget that no military
leader has ever become great without audacity.
—CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ,
Die Grundsätze des Kriegführens
(PRINCIPLES OF WAR), 1812
Patton is America’s best.
—GENERAL GERD VON RUNDSTEDT
General Patton, the rootin’, tootin’, hip-shootin’ commander of American Forces.
—NBC
Montgomery … the greatest living soldier.
—GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Montgomery is Britain’s greatest general.
—GENERAL GERD VON RUNDSTEDT
Rommel: the boldest Panzerwaffen general that we have in the German army.
—ADOLF HITLER
Rommel, Rommel, Rommel—what else matters but beating him?
—WINSTON CHURCHILL
There was a general consensus that they should put Montgomery and Patton and Rommel in the
same ring and take off the gloves and let ’em go at it.
—BILL MAULDIN, IN STUDS TERKEL, The Good War: An Oral History of World War II
CONTENTS
Maps
Prologue: The Ego at War
PART ONE
1 Introductions: Three Portraits
2 First Blood
3 How to Fight in Armor
4 Rommel’s Blitzkrieg
Part One Appendix
Original Rommel: 7th Panzer Division Invasion Narrative
PART TWO
5 Conquests of the Deutsches Afrika Korps
6 Hounding Rommel: Monty and Patton Close In
7 Operations Lightfoot and Torch
8 Fractures in the Anglo-American Alliance
9 Patton’s Race to Messina
10 Monty’s Crawl to Salerno
11 The Battering Ram and the Atlantic Wall
Part Two Appendix
Original Patton: The Invasion Speech to the Third Army
PART THREE
12 The Master Plan and the Grossinvasion
13 The Caen Controversy
14 Patton’s Blitzkrieg and the “Montgomery Thrust”
15 The Rommel Murder
16 Bulging Ambitions: Patton and Monty “Win” the War
17 What to Do with Nazis and Communists
Part Three Appendix
Original Monty: Memoirs at War
Epilogue: The Will to Fight
Acknowledgments and Sources